Shopify B2B: A Modern Solution for Legacy Systems
For many large B2B brands, eCommerce operations often feel stuck in the past. It's common to find complex B2B ordering systems built around custom databases prioritizing inventory and logistics, leaving little room for content management and customer engagement.
Without modern eCommerce features at their fingertips, Sales teams might rely on Salesforce for inventory management and manually process orders using spreadsheets. We’ve encountered multi-million dollar businesses that still rely on fax machines for the majority of their sales and invoicing.
The manual approach, while functional, hinders growth and agility, creating a bottleneck in an otherwise smooth operation. The path to unhindered growth lies in automating the manual processes that are the most grueling, tedious, and time-consuming. Enter Shopify.
Shopify B2B is the world’s most powerful B2B commerce solution, it’s packed with hundreds of B2B-friendly features that enable "old school" brands to embrace modern eCommerce technology.
Escaping the Custom Database Trap
Many B2B businesses operate on legacy systems where the focus has traditionally been on the backend. These systems prioritize inventory, logistics, and reliability, but often lack the flexibility needed for effective content delivery to enhance the customer experience. This can lead to:
Limited Content Management: Difficulty in creating and managing content tailored to specific B2B audiences. One-size-fits-all ‘boilerplate’ content leaves missed opportunities for connecting with different types of customers.
Inefficient Order Processing: With no self-service ordering portal, sales teams must rely on manual ordering processes, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
Hindered technical growth: Challenges in connecting with new tech, creating data silos and limiting the adoption of cutting edge sales and marketing tools.
The Shopify B2B Advantage
Shopify B2B brings a wave of change for B2B commerce. Shopify provides a comprehensive platform that addresses the unique needs of B2B businesses while offering modern eCommerce features that are focused on improving the customer experience to encourage larger, more frequent orders, and improved customer satisfaction. Some key benefits of the Shopify B2B platform include:
Extensive B2B Features: Shopify B2B is equipped with hundreds of features designed specifically for B2B operations, including volume pricing, customer-specific catalogs, company profiles, and quantity rules.
Seamless Integrations: Shopify's highly customizable API ensures smooth integration with existing systems, allowing for replatforming without disrupting the current tech stack—a specialty of B2 by BlueSwitch, a Shopify Plus Development Agency and preferred Shopify Plus Partner.
Modern eCommerce Technology: Move away from outdated systems and embrace the flexibility and scalability of modern eCommerce.
Enhanced Content Management for B2B Audiences
One of the standout features of Shopify B2B is its robust content management capabilities. This platform allows B2B brands to create targeted content that speaks directly to different stakeholders within a transaction.
Shopify B2B can be leveraged to create curated customer experiences based on account status, previous order history, location, or other criteria. That means that new customers can login and see different pricing and payment terms than long-standing customers. Location-based logic can be used to create regional catalogs, or streamline international shipping and logistics by ensuring that overseas customers can only see and purchase products that are stored in their local region.
Audience-Targeted Content: Shopify B2B enables the creation of curated content visible only to signed-in users or specific customer segments based on spending, account status, location, or other criteria.
Customizer Tool: With the built-in customizer, users can create eye-catching announcements, product releases, landing pages, and more, without requiring any coding experience. This empowers marketing teams to quickly adapt and deliver relevant information to their audiences.
Replatforming with B2 by BlueSwitch
At B2 by BlueSwitch, we specialize in B2B replatforming, helping enterprise B2B brands upgrade their eCommerce operations without disrupting a client's existing tech stack. We understand the complexities of integrating new systems with established workflows, with seamless Shopify B2B integrations. By leveraging Shopify's powerful API, we ensure a smooth transition, allowing B2B brands to capitalize on modern eCommerce technology while maintaining their core operations.
Shopify B2B represents a significant upgrade for B2B brands looking to modernize their eCommerce operations. By moving away from legacy systems and embracing a platform built for the future, these organizations can drive growth, improve efficiency, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
